New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today launched eSupro, the electric version of Supro vans in two variants – cargo and passenger – strengthening its portfolio of zero emission vehicles. The company has priced eSupro cargo vans starting at Rs 8.45 lakh, and Rs 8.75 lakh for eSupro passenger van (both ex-showroom Delhi and post FAME subsidy). ESupro platform, which has a range of 112 Km on a full charge is ideal for city transportation and would cater primarily to the b2b segment, M&M said.

“The launch of eSupro will usher in a whole new concept in emission free cargo transportation and people movement. Going forward, eSupro would provide a much needed fillip to companies in the b2b and e-commerce segment,” said M&M president and chief (automotive) Pravin Shah. ESupro, has a lithium Ion battery and takes 8 hours 45 minutes for full charge. It would have a top speed of 60 km. “In other markets, it would cost more as in Delhi, the price includes FAME subsidy given by the government for the electric vehicles,” he said.

The company would first concentrate on the top metro cities with eSupro and later would go to tier II markets, he added. This is third electric platform from USD 17.8 billion Mahindra group after e2o and eVerito. In April this year, the company had introduced e2o in the UK market. “Today with our range of electric vehicles we can reach out to an entire spectrum of consumers across segments in people and goods movement,” Shah said.

The company has already got a order to supply 50 vehicles to online grocery store Bigbasket and in talks with the online tax aggregator Ola. M&M is expecting that the electric vehicle segment is poised for growth and the company would be introducing more models in the electric vehicle segment. “Going forward Zero Emission vehicles will drive the future of mobility, reduce emission and build an ecosystem for electric mobility in India, at par with its foreign counterparts,” said Mahindra Electric CEO Arvind Mathew.

In 2015, globally battery electric vehicle (BEV) had a growth of 59 per cent. In countries such as China BEV had 40 per cent growth. However, in India the growth last year was only 1 per cent and has only four lakh BEVs and four thousand electric cars. “However, this number would go up in the coming years with growing awareness and advancement of the technology,” Mathew said.